Renardo Sidney reopening recruitment?

[rotogod00]

Not necessarily Duke related (pretty please), but "Sidney is reportedly reconsidering his verbal commitment to USC, a confidential source told the L.A. Times. Sidney, who is originally from Mississippi, visited Mississippi State this weekend, the paper reports. Sources also state that he has passed his SAT and just needs the requisite grades in 16 core classes to be fully eligible."

[spinoza]

Renardo Sydney: Ht: 6-9 Wt: 260
A big guy with a great shot. He has some muscle and weight to him with a solid low-post game.

Here are some reels from youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEDiy5q8IVI

[Clipsfan]

He also has a reputation for being difficult and lazy. He supposedly told Ben Howland that he'd come to UCLA if offered and Howland said "hells no"

[spinoza]

Good point,
Renardo has some issues, but USC wanted him to sign with them...

...now it looks like he will go to Mississippi State.

[SoCalDukeFan]

is a very highly ranked player who may have no place to play to next year.

According this LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/basketball/la-sp-usc-sidney29-2009apr29,0,6331872.story) story Sydney is not going to USC. He had made a verbal commitment. The story also says that Europe is out. Maybe Mississippi State?

Interesting to speculate as to what is going on.

SoCal

[SoCalDukeFan]

Here is the story from the May 4th LA Times. (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-renardo-sidney4-2009may04,0,3341292.story)

Some lowlights

In 2006 Sidney and his family moved from Mississippi to LA. Sonny Vaccaro paid some of the moving expenses.

His step-father's employer is Reebok.

Family has moved multiple times in LA. With a modest income they have lived in a home was a market rent of $4000 - $5000 per month.

His step-father and a car dealer formed a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization called the Los Angeles/LA Dream Team Foundation. Sidney was on the team and his father got $20,000 for them to play in a tournament in Las Vegas.

USC thought they were out of the recruiting picture but their coach, Tim Floyd was informed otherwise a Nike exec. (Question - Why does Nike know more about the kid's interest in USC then the USC coach?)

SoCal

[rotogod00]

yeah, here's the rivals story:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Even-USC-was-scared-to-recruit-Renardo-Sidney?urn=ncaab,160941

bottom line is that usc pulled its scholarship offer as it was worried about sidney's money issues. and ucla was scared off before them.